HST goes on the subtotal of a lighting quote, 13 percent in Ontario, and the deposit is a percent of the taxed total: a $1,620.90 Ottawa quote carries $210.72 of HST, totals $1,831.62, and a 30 percent deposit is $549.49. You only charge it once you are registered, and the CRA does not make you register until taxable sales pass $30,000. The rules, quoted from the CRA pages, are below.
I run a permanent lighting company in Ottawa and built GlowBid. This page is how the tax line works on a quote and an invoice, with the CRA's own words linked, in CAD with the USD beside it at the Bank of Canada's 1.3840 from September 4, 2026. It is not tax advice. Your accountant decides when you register, which return period you file and what the provincial sales tax does to a service in BC, Saskatchewan, Manitoba or Quebec.
Do you have to register and charge GST or HST?#
Not until taxable sales pass $30,000, and then within 29 days. The CRA's registration page, updated June 16, 2026, says you are a small supplier while you "do not exceed the $30,000 threshold over four consecutive calendar quarters", where a calendar quarter is "a period of three months beginning on the first day of January, April, July, or October". Cross it and the timing depends on how fast you crossed it.
| What happened |
What the CRA says |
What you do |
| Sales under $30,000 over the last four quarters |
You are a small supplier |
No registration, no tax on the quote, no tax line at all |
| You pass $30,000 inside one calendar quarter (a real November) |
"Your effective date of registration is no later than the day of the supply that made you exceed $30,000" |
Register within 29 days; "you have to start charging GST/HST on the supply that made you exceed $30,000" |
| You pass $30,000 over four consecutive quarters |
"You are no longer a small supplier at the end of the month following the quarter in which you exceed $30,000" |
Register within 29 days of the first sale after that; charge from that sale |
| You are under the threshold but buy a lot of product |
"You may choose to register voluntarily if you make taxable sales, leases, or other supplies in Canada" |
Register, charge on every job, claim the tax back on the spool, the ladder and the truck |
Fifteen jobs at $2,000 is $30,000, so a first season that works crosses the line in one quarter, and the sale that crosses it is taxable. That is the trap: a quote sent in October without a tax line becomes a job in November that needs one. Registering before the first quote closes that trap, and the tax paid on product is only recoverable once you are a registrant. Which quarter to register in is your accountant's call.
What rate goes on the quote?#
The rate for the province where the house is. The CRA's place-of-supply page, updated July 15, 2026, lists 5 percent GST in the non-participating provinces, 13 percent HST in Ontario, 14 percent HST in Nova Scotia on or after April 1, 2025, and 15 percent HST in the other participating provinces. For a service its General Rule 1 applies when "the supplier obtains that address in the normal course of business", which makes the recipient's province the place of supply, and an installer always has the service address.
| Province or territory |
Rate on the quote |
Label |
| Ontario |
13% |
HST |
| New Brunswick, Newfoundland and Labrador, Prince Edward Island |
15% |
HST |
| Nova Scotia (since April 1, 2025) |
14% |
HST |
| Alberta, Yukon, Northwest Territories, Nunavut |
5% |
GST |
| British Columbia, Saskatchewan, Manitoba, Quebec |
5% GST, plus the provincial tax where it applies to your service |
GST, or the combined label your accountant gives you |
An Ottawa installer doing a house across the river in Gatineau charges 5 percent GST on that job, not 13 percent HST, and whether Quebec's QST applies to the install is a Revenu Quebec question. Set the tax percent and label once on your rate card for your home province, and change it on the quote when the house is somewhere else. The Canadian pricing page has per-foot rates by province to sit beside the tax line.
Tax-inclusive or plus tax: which way do you quote?#
Plus tax, with the HST on its own line, because the homeowner's number and your number are then the same number. Both ways are legal. The CRA's receipts and invoices page, updated April 8, 2026, says you have to show "the GST/HST rate that applies to the supply" and "the amount paid or payable and the GST/HST amount as separate lines or a clear statement that the total amount paid or payable includes GST/HST". The mistake is the third way, where you say a number "all in" without ever deciding.
| How you quoted it |
What the homeowner pays |
Your revenue |
HST you remit |
| $1,620.90 plus 13% HST (the engine's way) |
$1,831.62 |
$1,620.90 |
$210.72 |
| $1,831.62, "includes 13% HST" |
$1,831.62 |
$1,620.90 |
$210.72 |
| $1,620.90 "all in", no tax line set |
$1,620.90 |
$1,434.43 |
$186.47 (13/113 of the price) |
The third row costs $186.47 on one job and $7,459 across 40 of them, and it is one way an under-priced first season happens: the rate card was built without the tax, the quote went out without it, and the CRA still gets 13/113 of whatever was paid. GlowBid's engine applies the tax percent to the subtotal after the minimum-job check, adds it as its own line, and takes the deposit percent from the taxed total. Set the line to 13 and HST once and every quote and invoice carries it.
Do you charge HST on the deposit?#
Not when it is paid; when it is applied. The CRA's special cases page, updated June 18, 2026, says "do not collect the GST/HST when a customer gives you a deposit towards a taxable purchase. Collect the GST/HST on the deposit when you apply it to the purchase price." The older GST 300-6-8 memorandum says the same: "the tax will be payable by the recipient at the time the supplier applies the deposit against the consideration for the taxable supply."
Two consequences for an installer. First, size the deposit from the taxed total anyway, so that when it is applied on install day the balance invoice is right: 30 percent of $1,831.62 is $549.49, and the balance is $1,282.13, with the full $210.72 of HST accounted for on that invoice. Second, a forfeited deposit is taxed. If the homeowner cancels and you keep the $549.49 under your cancellation clause, the CRA says in Ontario "the HST is equal to the forfeited amount multiplied by 13/113", which is $63.22 you remit out of it. If you refund the deposit, "there are no tax consequences". The deposit schedule guide covers the cancellation clause itself.
What has to be on the invoice?#
For any lighting job, all nine items in the CRA's table, because every one is over $500. RC4022, General Information for GST/HST Registrants (Rev. 25) lists what a registrant customer needs to see to claim the tax back, by the size of the sale, and it is the checklist every invoice should pass.
| Information |
Under $100 |
$100 to $499.99 |
$500 or more |
| Your business name |
Required |
Required |
Required |
| Invoice date or payment date |
Required |
Required |
Required |
| Total amount paid or payable |
Required |
Required |
Required |
| GST/HST amount, or a statement that it is included |
|
Required |
Required |
| That the supply is taxable |
|
Required |
Required |
| Your GST/HST registration number |
|
Required |
Required |
| The buyer's name |
|
|
Required |
| Description of the work |
|
|
Required |
| Payment terms |
|
|
Required |
The registration number is the one installers forget, and the one a commercial customer's bookkeeper will phone about in February. Put it on the quote as well as the invoice, so the number the homeowner signs and the number they pay match. GlowBid's invoices carry the tax line, the total and a payments ledger, so a deposit and a balance show as two payments against one taxed invoice.
Worked example: an Ottawa quote with HST#
The two-storey in Kanata from our Canadian software page: a single-storey garage, two front gables, a walkway and one small maple, seasonal C9, measured from one photo with the 16 ft garage door as the reference. Every rate is GlowBid's default seasonal card typed as Canadian dollars, with the tax line set to 13 percent HST, and the total is what the engine produces from the drawing.
| Line |
Amount |
| Runs: 40 ft garage roofline, 68 ft upper roofline with the storey premium, 22 ft of peaks with pitch and storey premiums, 10 ft of jumps, 26 ft of walkway, one tree wrap |
$1,575.90 |
| Timer (add-on) |
$45.00 |
| Minimum job check ($1,500): met |
$0.00 |
| Subtotal before tax |
$1,620.90 |
| HST 13% on the subtotal |
$210.72 |
| Total the homeowner signs |
$1,831.62 |
| Deposit at signature, 30% of the taxed total |
$549.49 |
| Balance on install day |
$1,282.13 |
In US dollars that is about $1,323 at 1.3840. The deposit collects through Stripe when the homeowner signs on their phone, and Stripe's Canadian rate of 2.9 percent plus $0.30 takes $16.24 of it. The HST on the whole job becomes payable when the deposit is applied against the install-day invoice, and that invoice carries the nine items above. You can draw this house in the free tool and see the 196 lit feet before you type a single rate.
What if you quote in the US?#
The same tax line, a different question. US sales tax varies by state, county and city, and many states do not tax installation labour at all, so the engine ships with the tax percent at 0 and a label you set. Enter the rate your accountant gives you, and it applies to the subtotal the same way HST does. The USD figures on this page are for Canadian installers reading American pricing pages, not a statement about any state's rules.
Mistakes we see on Canadian quotes and invoices#
- A rate card built without the tax. The per-foot rate is your revenue; the tax goes on top. If you set $8 per foot to include the HST, you are really charging $7.08 and remitting $0.92 of it.
- The first November with no tax line. Fifteen jobs cross $30,000 in one quarter and the fifteenth is taxable. Register before the season or watch the threshold weekly.
- Charging HST while still a small supplier. If you are not registered, you cannot charge it. A quote that says HST with no registration number is a problem in both directions.
- HST on the deposit invoice, then again on the balance. The tax is on the job once. Take the deposit as a percent of the taxed total, apply it on install day, and let one invoice carry the $210.72.
- A forfeited deposit booked as revenue with no tax. The CRA deems 13/113 of it to be HST in Ontario. $549.49 kept is $63.22 remitted.
- Ontario's rate on a Gatineau house. The place of supply is the house's province. Change the line on that quote.
- No registration number on the quote. Required on invoices from $100 up, and a commercial customer's bookkeeper will ask for it. Print it on the quote so the two documents match.
- No tax on the takedown or the re-install. Service on customer-owned lights is a taxable supply like any other. The Ottawa pricing page has the service rates with the HST beside them.
Where the tax line lives#
On the rate card, once. GlowBid's rate card carries the tax percent and label with the per-foot rates, the premiums, the minimum job and the deposit percent, and the engine applies them in that order: runs and premiums, add-ons, discount, minimum-job check, tax on the subtotal, deposit as a percent of the total. The drawing decides the footage, the rate card decides the price, and the tax line rides on top without anyone doing the 13 percent by hand on a truck in November. Photo measurements are estimates confirmed on site, and every quote says so. Core is $299 USD a year at the founding price, about $414 CAD, and the free roofline tool draws the house today with no login until you export.
